Empire's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
For 6,820 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 54% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 43% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.8 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 66
Highest review score: 100 Oppenheimer
Lowest review score: 20 Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
Score distribution:
6820 movie reviews
  1. News Of The World is narratively slight, but it is a terrific showcase for two actors at completely different ends of their careers and a quietly emotional dispatch about two broken souls learning to heal.
  2. Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé achieves total Beyhem, a riot of colour, spectacle, inventive staging, stunning vocals and gorgeous grooves. As a self-portrait, it might not delve as deep as you’d like, but it offers a thrilling lesson in what it takes to be a pop icon.
  3. Stark, bold drama.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The only fireworks here are of the indoor kind, but this sensitive, beautifully acted film lingers long after the final frame. And the Newfoundland locations are breathtaking.
  4. Hugely affecting and perfectly played, Nowhere Special is a peach of a picture.
  5. Touching and funny. Waters fans should sign up now.
  6. We must surely now be getting close to some sort of zombie saturation point, with even the zomromcom becoming a distinct subsubgenre. On Beth’s evidence, however, there’s life in the undead yet.
  7. Butler’s best star vehicle in years, what could have been a bombastic bunch of boulders is, instead, a refreshingly clear-eyed and compelling affair. One of the best disaster movies in years.
  8. The Lego Movie is bursting out of its box with enthusiasm and excitement for the possibilities of a little pile of nubby plastic.
  9. As with most Cassavetes' it is Rowlands who steals this show, this time expertly playing the happy housewife slowly going off the rails while Falk plays the part of her bewildered husband. At two-and-a-half hours, it could easily have dragged but with such strong performances, you're left wanting more.
  10. Sensual, surreal and seriously funny, In Fabric won’t be the right fit for all — but slip it on and you might be surprised.
  11. An affecting reflection on the loneliness we will all have to face at our end, held together by Vicky Krieps's poised display of unself-pitying despair and liberating acceptance.
  12. A holiday romance perfect for the dark nights with the added bonus of a flashback structure that builds genuine intrigue into the outcome. It also includes a use of Rod Stewart’s ‘Sailing’ that guarantees its place on your 2020 movie playlist.
  13. As ultraviolent as the first film, and as ultrasmutty, The Golden Circle will leave the Kingsfans grinning, even if its characters have less growing to do this time around.
  14. Psycho’s accepted greatness means we can leave it on the shelf as we look for newer sensations. This prompts an urgent desire to revisit it.
  15. By no means perfect - a twist in the tale overextends its already lengthy running time - but it is terrific fun.
  16. The dirty compañeros of the old Spaghetti West ride again in this stirring tale of hate, murder and revenge.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A modern love story with a dash of Cronenberg for good measure — a brutal portrait of messy, intense long-term love. Warts, blood, bones and all.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Girls meets Ocean’s Eleven, The Bling Ring might be a film for right now rather than the ages, but Sofia Coppola’s heist movie is visually arresting, well acted, capricious fun.
  17. Truly delightful. Wes Anderson leans into his trademark eccentricities for a trip to the desert that won’t win any converts but will keep the Anderson faithful content.
  18. It might not feel fresh but Palo Alto feels real, honest and moving. An impressive debut by an exciting new talent.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Saturday Night Live activist Murphy, capitalising on the promise he showed in "48 Hrs.," steals the show as the quick-witted Billy Ray Valentine in what is certainly more mainstream fare than the earlier SNL staffed capers.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The sometimes dark sci-fi thriller tone is punctured nicely by Quaid's one-liners, and Capshaw is on good form. Very, very '80s, but lots of fun too.
  19. The world Jordan envisions is desperate, but Hoskins’s human heart offers a lovely thread of hope.
  20. Mulan serves up the sort of classic entertainment the Magic Kingdom was built on: stunning animation, sharply defined characters, a smattering of catchy tunes all seamlessly woven into a simple, powerfully told yarn.
  21. With a committed, crazed, brilliantly calibrated performance from late-Renaissance Cage, this is a feverishly good thriller: surreal and strange and sticky.
  22. Beats is a truly heartfelt rites-of-passage tale — an immersive, intoxicating portrayal of the rave scene at its peak.
  23. Lyne's efforts to be both passionate and artistic are generally successful, although a few sex scenes are disturbing and arguably close to salacious.
  24. An early entry into documenting Covid-19, Totally Under Control doesn’t have all the answers, but it is a vital, powerful examination of how one political administration could get something so wrong by ignoring the experts.
  25. This charmingly odd tribute to Sorrentino’s formative years is slighter than it possibly deserves to be, but when it’s this handsome, who cares? Will have you absolutely salivating for Italy.

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